First Team News

Dzeko continues fine start

Sun 04 Sep 2011, 10:50 AM

Edin Dzeko

Most of the Blues who represented their country had successful outings, but there will be one or two who will feel things could have gone better.

Edin Dzeko’s season keeps getting better and better and though he wasn’t on the score-sheet in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2-0 win away to Belarus, he played 80 minutes and won a penalty to cap off an impressive display.

England are on a roll, too. Joe Hart kept another clean sheet at Fabio Capello’s side beat Bulgaria 3-0 and Gareth Barry’s excellent start to the season continued as he was preferred to Frank Lampard in the starting XI.

James Milner and Adam Johnson both had late cameos to add to their cap collection as the Three Lions moved clear at the top of their group, thanks to Wales’ 2-1 win over Stefan Savic’s Montenegro. Savic played the full 90 minutes in what was something of a surprise defeat.

Samir Nasri played the full 90 minutes in France’s 2-1 win in Albania to stay top of their group, though Gael Clichy didn’t feature for Les Blues.

Elsewhere, City skipper Vincent Kompany led Belgium in Azerbaijan, but will be disappointed in the 1-1 draw that dents the Belgian’s chances of Euro 12 qualification.

Aleksandar Kolarov had a better evening in Belfast where Serbia beat Northern Ireland 1-0 with the hosts having Ryan McGivern as an unused substitute. Costel Pantilimon was also unused for Romania's 2-0 win in Luxembourg.

Mario Balotelli only saw five minutes of action as he came on as a late substitute during Italy’s narrow 1-0 away victory over the Faroe Islands and Vladimir Weiss played 86 minutes of Slovakia’s useful 0-0 draw with the Republic of Ireland.

Finally, there were a couple of international friendlies that featured City stars. Argentina beat Venezuela 1-0 in Calcutta with Pablo Zabaleta playing 83 minutes and Sergio Aguero coming on for the last 13.

David Silva picked up a booking and played 80 minutes of Spain’s eventful 3-2 win over Chile. The South Americans were 2-0 up at the break but a late winner from Cesc Fabregas ensured La Roja took the spoils.

First Team News

Bring together the players, a brand new kit and club photographer Sharon Latham, and what do you get? A photo-shoot with hilarious consequences ... no, sorry, that's the new sitcom she's working on, Love Thy Noisy Neighbour.